Is Secondhand Cannabis Smoke Safe Indoors?
Reposted with permission from @SHALWETOKE
As of now, 6 states allow for onsite consumption in licensed businesses. These 6 states are Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Michigan. However, within these 6 states, local governments are the ones who must first approve of this activity before a business can allow indoor smoking.
With there being no reasonable place for people to consume legally, there has been a growing concern on how secondhand smoke affects public health while indoors. There are currently 56 localities that allow onsite cannabis consumption businesses, but only 9% of localities require indoors to be smoke-free.
23% of local governments allow smoking in isolated rooms and require that the smoke not drift to non-smoking areas or there be a smoke-free employee viewing area. Although these local governments are trying to address odor control, proper building locations, and usage of ventilation or filtration systems, the “accommodation” framework is kind of awful, especially since they are trying to resemble the tobacco industry’s model.
The issue with health experts is that they’ve spent decades trying to clear indoor air of tobacco smoke and now they see it being replaced with cannabis. My counter to that is, how have hookah lounges successfully accommodated tobacco smoking for years with no loud concern over health, yet for cannabis there seems to be such discrimination and uproar? Cannabis advocates have argued to allow for designated indoor spaces for tourists, renters and even those who are homeless to smoke or vape so they won’t be exposed to law enforcement issues. Investigators have suggested alternatives such as allowing outside, out-of-view cannabis use at retailers or allowing only the use of non-inhalable ways of ingesting without polluting the air.
I know this is hard to hear but second-hand cannabis smoke does contain fine particle matters that can be breathed deeply into the lungs which contain many of the same cancer-causing substances and toxic chemicals that are present in tobacco. A study comparing indoor cannabis smoke and indoor tobacco smoke found that the emission rate of a joint was found to be 3.5 times the average emission rate of a Marlboro cigarette.
Smoke exposure substantially impairs blood vessel function which can cause adverse heart problems, regardless of whether it’s from tobacco or cannabis.
Also, you would think vaping and dabbing produce less harmful chemicals, think again. These methods produce a chemical called aerosol that pollutes indoor air to unhealthy levels, which is compared to extreme air pollution events like wildfires and severe industrial pollution, which can cause health and lung diseases.
It’s not the easiest thing to hear as a cannabis advocate but I think that these localities need to figure out a way to safely allow consumption, in extremely well-ventilated areas. I also don’t think it’s the worst idea to allow for outdoor consumption. I understand keeping it out of view from children is important, but there doesn’t seem to be such restrictions when it comes to tobacco smoke. Again, my example is seeing people smoking hookah both indoors and outdoors like it’s no problem. Mind you, the usual smoking hookah age is between 18-20 since these kids are not old enough to go to clubs or bars. Also, studies have shown that smoking hookah for roughly 45-60 minutes is the equivalent of smoking 100 cigarettes. Funny how we don’t see the same uproar in protecting the safety and wellbeing of the youth in those situations, yet there is such an issue when it comes to cannabis.
By: @SHALWETOKE
